<p>Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private?
It is important to express one's feelings to others and thus, people should not make more of an effort to keep things private. Death of a Salesman is an example where the downfall of the main character Willy, could've been avoided had he been more open to his family. Another good examples is in the novella 'Don't look now' where the ultimate death of one of the main character's John is caused because he hid his feelings from his wife. </p>
<p>In Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller in 1949, Willy Loman lives in guilt through his life as he hides the fact that he had an affair with a prostitute from most of his family. During one of Willy's business trips, Willy feels lonely and invites the desk woman up to Willy's room. During the affair, Biff, one of the two sons of Willy actually walks into the room hoping to get some advice from his father and have found a woman hiding in the hotel bathroom, Biff is perplexed and begins to curse his father. Year later, after both of them kept the affair a secret from the rest of the family, Biff becomes increasingly angry that Willy hasn't told Linda, his wife. Feeling guilt and shame over the affair, and unable to face Linda to tell her, Willy decides to take his own life. Here we can see that keeping feeling's a secret can cause distress and depression as Willy is constantly haunted by his past. Had Willy told Linda the truth, perhaps Willy could've been able to overcome the guilt and not have commited suicide. </p>
<p>In the novella 'Don't look now', written by Daphne Maurier, we encounter John, a man who's death can be attributed to the way John never tells his wife, Laura, how he really feels about their daughter's death. After the death of the daughter, John takes Laura on a trip to venice, hoping to make her forget about the death of Christine, the daughter. The real problem occurs when John is unable to confess to himself or his wife that the death of the child causes much grief in him and this causes him to go into a state of paranoia. This paranoia eventually culminates by taking John's life. Here we see how John's inhability to talk to his wife, causes the paranoia, and eventually leads to his own death. </p>
<p>In wide sargasso sea, written by Jean Rhys, we encounter a destitute mother-daughter relationship between Annette and Antoinnete. Annette, the mother, is constantly critisized by the neighbouring black people in Jamaica which eventually leads to her madness. Meanwhile, Antoinnette grows up without friends and with her mother in such a poor state, is unable to express herself to anyone. This lack of expression, eventually plunges Antoinnette into insanity as well. This exposes how the lack of talking and expressing herself to others, has led to the madness of Antoinnette. </p>
<p>In conclusion, as seen in the examples explored, people should not, indeed, make more of an effort to keep things private as this bottling up of emotion can take a mental toll and can eventually have catastrophic consequences such as death.</p>